Systematic Equity Return Patterns in Listed European Property Companies

This study investigates systematic monthly return regularities in the listed equity returns of twelve European property companies. Significant monthly effects exist in all sampled countries with Germany as the single exception. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence of abnormally high December returns, or a December effect, in four international indices (FTSE EPRA/NAREIT international Europe, Euro-zone, Global, and North America) and five European countries (Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom). With the exception of Switzerland, the well-documented January effect is absent from all European property company equity returns.